Yesterday’s Cincinnati Enquirer Charles Krauthammer column, “Obama’s new strategy: Identify a scapegoat”, bothered you:
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“To the villainy-of-the-rich theme emanating from Washington, a child is born: Occupy Wall Street, Starbucks-sipping, Levi’s clad, iPhone-clutching protesters denounce corporate America even as they weep for Steve Jobs, corporate titan, billionaire eight times over.
These indignant insolents saddled with their $50,000 student loans and English degrees have decided that their lack of gainful employment is rooted in the malice of the millionaires on whose homes they are now marching – to the applause of Democrats suffering acute tea party envy and now salivating at the energy these big-government anarchists will presumably give their cause.”
From: Krauthammer, Charles, “Obama’s new strategy: Identify a scapegoat,” Cincinnati Enquirer, 14 October 2011, A9
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The implication is that English majors are not worth the paper they are printed on. Here is a list of famous English majors from the English Department of Mississippi State University and the English Major’s Hall of Fame at California State University, Bakersfield:
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Famous English Majors
Listed Alphabetically
• Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy)
• Alan Alda (actor, writer)
• Russell Baker (journalist)
• Dave Barry (humorist, writer, actor)
• Joy Behar (writer, comedienne, co-host of “The View”)
• Linda Bloodworth-Thomason (television writer/producer “Designing Women”, “Evening Shade”)
• Gwendolyn Brooks (“We Real Cool”)
• Carol Browner (head of the Environmental Protection Agency)
• Edward Burns (actor, director, producer, writer)
• Brett Butler (actress, writer, comedienne)
• James Cameron (director, editor, producer, screenwriter of “Titanic”)
• Johnny Carson (talk show host)
• Chevy Chase (comedian, actor, writer)
• Tom Clancy (writer)
• Mario Cuomo (former governor of New York)
• Joan Cusack (actress)
• Matt Damon (actor, screenwriter)
• Vin Diesel (actor, director, producer, screenwriter)
• David Duchovny (actor, “X-Files”)
• Michael Eisner (Walt Disney CEO)
• Harrison Ford (actor)
• Jodi Foster (actress, filmmaker)
• Kathryn Fuller (World Wildlife Fund CEO)
• A. Bartlett Giamatti (President, Yale University & Commissioner of Baseball)
• Allen Ginsberg ( “Howl”)
• Heather Graham (actress, model)
• Cathy Guisewite (cartoonist of “Cathy”)
• Mary Hart (co-host of “Entertainment Tonight”)
• Joseph Heller (Catch 22)
• Don Henley (singer, songwriter, musician, environmental activist)
• David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly)
• Chris Isaak (songwriter, singer)
• Famke Janssen (actress, model)
• Catherine Keener (actress)
• Stephen King (novelist)
• Kris Kristofferson (singer, songwriter, musician, actor)
• Tommy Lee Jones (actor)
• John Mahoney (actor, Marty on “Frasier”)
• Arthur Miller (Death of a Salesman)
• Toni Morrison (Beloved)
• Paul Newman (actor, food entrepreneur)
• Joyce Carol Oates (You Must Remember This )
• Conan O’Brien (talk show host, writer)
• Randy Owen (singer, songwriter, musician)
• Joe Paterno (football coach, Penn State)
• David Hyde Pierce (actor who plays Niles on “Frasier”)
• Christopher Reeve (actor, writer, director)
• Sally Ride (astronaut)
• Geoffrey Rush (actor, director, playwright, musician)
• Susan Sarandon (actress)
• Fred Savage (actor from “The Wonder Years”)
• Diane Sawyer (broadcast journalist)
• Martin Scorsese (director)
• Marty Shottenheimer (Former coach of Kansas City Chiefs)
• Paul Simon (songwriter, singer)
• Sting (singer, songwriter, musician, actor, environmental activist)
• Steven Spielberg (filmmaker)
• Dr. Seuss, a.k.a. Theodor Geisel (children’s author)
• Amy Tan (Joy Luck Club)
• Brandon Tartikoff (television executive)
• Clarence Thomas (U.S. Supreme Court Justice)
• Emma Thompson (actress, producer, screenwriter)
• Grant Tinker (TV Executive and Producer)
• John Updike (Witches of Eastwick, Rabbit at Rest )
• James Van Der Beek (actor from “Dawson’s Creek”)
• Harold Varmus (Nobel laureate in medicine, Director of National Institute of Health)
• Barbara Walters (broadcast journalist)
• Sigourney Weaver (actress)
• Eudora Welty (“A Worn Path”)
• Pete Wilson (former governor of California)
• Reese Witherspoon (actress)
• Bob Woodward (journalist, writer of All the President’s Men)
• Renee Zellweger (actress)
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You are planning to drive to Public Square in downtown Cleveland to take part in Occupy Cleveland and get a sense of what the experience is like live.
Presently it is raining but it is still late morning. I'll have to wait and see what's going on with everyone else. Owen and company may head out to a pumpkin patch or apple farm of the weather cooperates or to the Children's Museum if it doesn't.
Post, old man. - Amorella.
This morning while in Cleveland I drove to the four quadrants intersected by Superior Avenue and Ontario Street, Public Square, parked in a lot behind a group of fifteen or so colorful tents with three open over the top white roofing dressings for further protection from weather, and once out of the car at public parking (six dollars for twenty-four hours) I found myself at the corner of West Roadway and Superior. Once across West Roadway I stood on Public Square looking north towards tall gray steeple of Old Stone (Presbyterian) Church and there was a small gathering of about fifteen to twenty people in front of the statue of the city’s founder Moses Cleaveland, I believe.
Within ten minutes the small group disbanded and headed south on Public Square towards Terminal Tower. The north side of the Square catty-cornered from 708 foot tall Terminal Tower, once in the twenties, thirties and forties it was the tallest building in the world outside of New York City. An old capitalistic icon gone wild I suppose.
The few gathered together, set up the microphones and worked on some placards for a few minutes then an enthusiastic young fellow gathered everyone around and asked for some noise, a community shout, which was given, then a very dramatic scream from some young lady. The was to bring focus and heighten awareness I suppose, and it wasn’t long before a few more showed up until they were fifty to sixty people or perhaps last as I did not do a countdown. The speeches were on economic justice, social justice and state justice. One aspect brought up was to take your money from the big banks and put it in small community banks and/or local credit unions. I stayed for the first two speakers, but as there was a brisk northwest wind off Lake Erie, the kind I had not felt since watching the Browns at the old stadium in the early sixties, and the stone wall I was sitting on was creeping into my arthritic hip bones, it was time for me to make my leave.
My initial enthusiasm to cross from the parking lot and car to Public Square allowed my mind to forget the car keys were still in the car when I locked it. So, with this realization I called daughter Kim and told her to bring me an extra set when the rest of the family had completed their sojourn to an apple and pumpkin farm outside the city for Owen’s entertainment. This left me with some time and I soon found myself on the quiet windless steps of Old Stone Church and allowed me to do some thinking.
Those at the assembly were mostly young as were their speeches. The problem was that the young ministers were preaching to the choir. And, I was reminded of how it is with a group of rag-tag demonstrators. What was needed was an orator and I could see how a great orator could get her or his start at such a place. People would be swept up ‘knowing’ it had found a leader and organization of reason and order.
Everyone appeared sincere and polite. People listened to the speaker and let everyone who wanted to, to have their say, which a couple of veterans also did, both suggesting money could be better spent at home rather than in Iraq and Afghanistan. No cell phones that I could see. Certainly no Starbuck’s cups of joe. The eats were free but sparing and a few of the regulars politely took advantage. No greed though – an interesting social strain of community sharing. “No we or us, here,” that’s what I overheard. People standing together as a small moral force against a society that has forgotten that we were created as a sovereign nation, a moral force, something large capitalistic businesses are not required or expected to do. What is the morality? The bottom-line and become larger and more powerful and in the process make more money to become larger and more powerful.
The last sign I saw was carried by a young lady from the nearby small tent town. She had a bright yellow placard and printed in red letters it said, “Tax the Rich 99%”. Very funny, I thought, Occupy Cleveland has a sense of humor. The last thing I heard was that the next assembly was at three and it was on ‘Education’. “Who’s the speaker?” someone asked. The other replied, “I am not sure, I have been busy.” So it goes. This is how it is in the early days of Occupy Cleveland. I wish them well though, I really do.
Post, boy, and call it a day. - Amorella.
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